Dementia Support Line
Recruitment and ethical considerations for groups
Important things to think about for all types of group discussion or activity you are holding as part of your research with people who have dementia.
- Group activities
- You are here: Recruitment and ethical considerations for groups
- Dementia-Friendly Focus Groups
- Service User Groups
- Round-table workshops
- World cafe method
- Electronic voting
- Mystery shopping, 'walk through' or audit
- Tips for dementia-friendly group discussions and activities
In all cases
Follow our guidance on how to recruit people affected by dementia and ethical considerations.
Specific additional considerations for seeking feedback on experience from groups
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Consent
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Make potential participants aware in advance of what the group will be discussing, and how, so that they can make decisions about whether they want to be involved.
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Consider whether what you want to ask about might be distressing for anyone, and if so, how to manage that, but don't make assumptions that people won't want to take part where people have capacity to decide whether or not to be involved.
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Follow good practice for process consent - allow the person to withdraw from the activity at any point if they are unwilling or unable to continue to participate.
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Confidentiality and data protection
- Tell the people participating in the groups about how you will protect their privacy. Explain that their responses will be anonymised, treated confidentially and not sold on to third parties.
- if you do want to use or share something they say in a way that identifies them, get their permission about doing this.
- Beware of inadvertently disclosing participant medical information to other people at group activities.
